


Flickers of Light

by SuperiorJango



Series: The Cantiga of the Witch [2]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Also this is super angsty, Angst, Emotional Hurt, Episode: s01e19 Young Blood Old Souls, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Hurt No Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, although I cry for everything, it's only like 50 words but be careful if you can't stand that sort of thing, made me cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26245588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperiorJango/pseuds/SuperiorJango
Summary: "The little flicker of light that had brought her so much happiness and hope drifted away."While captive by the Emperor's Coven, Eda begins to think about her past and present.TW: Gore
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & King, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Owlbert
Series: The Cantiga of the Witch [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906228
Comments: 9
Kudos: 49





	Flickers of Light

**Author's Note:**

> So, like a week ago I wrote something called Of poison and venom, where I imagine the way Agony of a witch would continue. But know we know how that ended, so I decided to write something about Eda being captured and the things she sees while she's an owl beast  
> It kinda follows the canon, but not entirely.  
> Also, I put it like 3 times already but it gets graphic in some parts, be careful when you get to those parts

Eda always hated the dark pits of her mindscape. Not only does being there means that she has become an incredibly dangerous owl monster, but also that whoever near her is in danger, be it foe or friend.

But what she hated the most was to relieve all of her life's experiences. Sometimes she saw nice memories, like the time she went to a human city, full of lights and spectacle, where people went to lose money in strange betting games. There she got married to a con-man whom she conned herself and fled the city with a bunch of money on her pockets. Just watching the poor man trying to free himself from the handcuffs was enough to lift her spirit a little bit.

Another memory that delighted her was the trip to the Titan's feet for a little beach day with King. She laughed as the small demon had his epic battle against the terrible Empress of the Boiling Seas. The so-called "Empress" being a regular sized flame calamari. It was ugly as sin, but, as Eda remembered, it's taste was ok, as flame calamari do not need to be seasoned before, and it was big enough to feed both of them. They had been so full they fell asleep on the beach. They woke up four hours later to discover that someone or something had stolen their things.

Eda then continued to watch old and pleasant memories. She watched when King got stuck in a sweater; the first time she heard King's battle cry and she laughed so hard she peed herself a bit; the night she finished creating Owlbert and the warmth she felt when the small, wooden owl nuzzled his small head against hers; her first sale in her human oddities shop; the time she tried to steal from some assassin's cult in the Shoulder and ended up sleeping with their beautiful leader. She robbed her blind after that of course.

But memories work in mysterious ways, and something that may be happy can bring great sorrow as well. Eda watched as everything went black, except for a small sphere of light. The Owl Lady reached out to touch it, only to discover it had transformed into her dear apprentice, Luz. And suddenly, she was no longer in a dark room full of nothing, but instead she was back in the Owl House. And Luz was hugging her, or rather, a version of her. That other Eda looked kind of annoyed and uncomfortable by the human's gesture, even more after King joined in. The real Eda felt a painful pang on her heart.

Then, everything she saw was memories of Luz, her human. She watched herself explaining Luz the whole thing about being a Chosen One. Luz's happy face when Eda proudly put her banned poster from Hexside next to her own. She watched as Luz drew her light glyph on small pieces of paper and left them in her nest. All the times she tried to help her in her shop. The way she smiled when she was told she could enter Hexside. The hot chocolate they shared after their adventure in the Knee. Her excitement when she told her mentor that she was the first witch to study all the tracks in the school. Luz's first Grom and her being crowned Queen. All the hugs, breakfasts, and other activities they did together, as a family.

Eda felt hot tears flowing from her eyes. While she dried them up, the landscape changed, the old witch felt cold and she began to observe memories that brought her sorrow.

Her first transformation into the Owl Beast and all the people who rejected and threw stones at her. Running away from home after refusing joining a Coven. The disappointed look on her parents' face after she was cursed. Lilith not defending her. The first time she was in jail and she was afraid of staying there for the rest of her life. Living on the streets, begging for money and food. All the people who tried to take advantage of the young witch. The things she had to do to survive. The people she hurt, robbed and killed just to have a barely fresh piece of bread to eat. Facing the Bat Queen and ending up so injured she thought she was not going to make it. The first time Lilith tried to arrest her and her heart broke as she realized her sister was her family no more. King bleeding out after he saved her from the guards and how afraid she was of losing her only friend in the whole world. King's small corpse on her arms and her mourning his death. How he woke up the next morning as if nothing had happened, but he didn't remember anything about her. Luz's expression of reject and sadness when Eda didn't remember who she was the first day of her witch training. The intense suffering she felt when she realized Luz was afraid of disappointing her.

Eda whished for this horrible trip down memory lane to end. But things usually never go the way we desire.

And now she was watching the same blighted memory that had been haunting her dreams for years now.

The night Lilith cursed her.

Eda was standing in front of her younger self. She turned back when she heard someone opening the door. Lilith was there, with her big, ugly, round glasses, and her hideous light-orange hair flowing over her shoulders. Eda tried to attack her traitorous sister. She tried to cast a spell, any spell, as long as it would hurt her. When that failed, she lounged at her, punching and kicking, but everything was in vain. Lilith continued to move towards her younger sister.

Eda helplessly watched as her older sister, the girl who had been her best friend, the girl she thought she could trust her life with, cursed her to a life of suffering and sorrow.

"You bastard! When I break free, I'll make you pay for what you did to me!" Eda's threats fell on deaf ears, as she was only watching a memory and Lilith couldn't hear her.

Eda felt angry, furious, mad.

Lilith was her older sister. She was supposed to look after her, to care for her, to protect her. Eda remembered the times when they enjoyed a cold glass of peach bile after a tired day of learning in Hexside. The first crush of her sister and how the younger Clawthorne blackmailed the poor elf into going to a date with Lilith. Their first moonlight conjuring. All the times Lilith, against everything she believed in, let her sister copy from her homework.

Everything they went through, was for nothing, none of that mattered to Lilith.

Eda felt angry, furious, mad.

But she also felt sad and miserable.

She knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't get herself cursed, it was Lilith who cursed her. But Eda couldn't stop asking herself if she had done something to deserve it.

Had she not been a good sister? Had a prank of hers gone too far? Far enough for Lilith to ruin her whole life and future? What had she done? What horripilant sin had she committed that the only way to repent herself was to spend more than half of her life agonising, not knowing if she would wake up consciously or if she would hurt the people she loved the most?

Eda was so deep in these self deprecating thoughts, she didn't notice when the darkness around began to consume her body.

Next time she opened her eyes, Eda wasn't in a dark room watching her memories. She was in a stone room, chained to the wall, her hands covered in steel plates, making the movement of her fingers impossible. It was big enough for her to freely move around, if she weren't chained of course. It was empty, save for a small bundle of dirty red clothes on a corner of the room.

Before she could have begun to think about where she was exactly, she noticed a small pink woman, with an enormous, severed green hand on her head, a finger covering her eye, while the other looked straight at her. Eda recognized the woman. She was Belos' advisor and most trusted servant. She was also one of the most powerful witches in the Illusion track. Kikimora.

"Ah, farts. The Emperor caught me, didn't he?" Eda said angrily. "And now he sends his _tiny_ lapdog to finish the job instead of doing it himself."

Kikimora ignored the attempt at an insult that the Owl Lady did and came closer to her. "In case you hadn't noticed it, miss Clawthorne, you're not cursed anymore. Thanks to the Emperor's enormous mercy."

"If by mercy you mean that he's a control freak, a totalitarian dictator who wants to have everyone in his grasp, then yeah, he's full of mercy. And there's no better way to show him how grateful I am than ripping his black heart out of his body."

"Do not confuse things, Clawthorne." Any feeling of warmth had disappeared from Kikimora's voice. "If Emperor Belos showed mercy, it's only because he knows you can and will help with his plans for the Boiling Isles."

"Hah! And here I thought everyone in this pitiful excuse of a Coven was as stuck up as my sister. That's a good one." Eda tried to come closer to Kikimora, but the chains on her arms didn't let her do it. Instead, she spat at her. Eda smiled when she saw the little monster backing away from her. "Now tell me, why should I help Belos? He has done nothing but trying to capture me for the last decade. I have no interest in joining his little club. And if you threaten to hurt Lilith". This last word was pronounced with as much venom as Eda could. "I'll be sad to not do it myself."

Kikimora glared at the captive witch. "Ah, of course. The wild witch who has no family, no friends, no one to protect. I had thought of you as an excellent hustler, able to make things go her way with only words. But your bluff won't work with me. We know of your pet demon, the self proclaimed "King of Demons" and of your Owl House who has brought so many problems to our guards before. And least but not less important, we have your staff and palisman." Eda wanted nothing more than slap the small witch. "So, tell me, Owl Lady, do you still think of yourself as 'untouchable'?"

Eda began to feel worried. But she knew she couldn't let Kikimora see her like that, so she put on her best poker face. "Hah! As if King couldn't take care of himself. He's a demon, you know? He's practically immortal. And Hooty? That damned house demon is so annoying you'll make me a favor if you destroy it. And I can always make another palisman. They're not so difficult to create." Each word that came out of her mouth was like someone dug a dagger into her heart. Eda could only hope that the Emperor's advisor hadn't seen through her bluff.

Kikimora stayed silent for a moment, and then she turned her back, as if she were to leave the cells. "I guess you're right. We'll have to resort to traditional torture to obtain what we want to know."

Eda scoffed, unafraid of the type of torture she'd have to endure. She was preparing a snarky response when Kikimora said something that chilled her blood.

"It's a shame the human hasn't survived. We could have used her to blackmail you."

"What did you just say?"

Kikimora turned back, a bored face looked at Eda. "Are you deaf or something? Did our healers make a mistake or something?"

"Answer the question."

"Don't be so rude, Clawthorne. I have no obligation to answer any questions you may have." With a pompous smile, Kikimora looked at Eda.

"JUST ANSWER THE DAMNED QUESTION!" Eda shouted at Kikimora.

"Don't you remember? After you transformed into that _dangerous_ form of yours, the human, what was her name? Joost? Loose?"

"Luz. And don't you dare mock her name. She's more of a witch than any of you, coven pawns could ever be." Eda's bluff was gone. She no longer cared about looking confident. She only wanted a clear answer.

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the human, _Loose_ , came to you after your transformation. A stupid decision. After all, you forget everything and everyone when you're a monster, don't you? I mean, what could a pet have expected to do?"

Eda felt dread and panic creeping up on her. She knew she had transformed into the Owl Beast, but she never thought that her little light would end hurt or... Eda begged to all gods, dead and alive, that she had heard wrong. That the little witch in front of her was just playing some sort of sick game to break her spirit.

"That's not true! I'll never hurt Luz! You're lying, you sorry excuse of a witch. I'll break free and murder you for..." Kikimora smiled evilly, lifting a finger to cast a spell.

"Please, miss Clawthorne, I would never lie to you. Let me show you what you've done to your dear _Loose_." The witch's spell lift the small bundle of clothes that was on the corner of Eda's cell, revealing Luz's small body. Or what was left of it.

Eda couldn't bring herself to watch her apprentice's corpse. But Kikimora made another spell to made her observe. Eda couldn't do any other thing but shriek in horror at what she saw.

Luz's body was completely maimed. Her lower half was gone, with her guts splattered all over the floor. The latina's chest had three big claw marks on it, dried blood on them. One of her arms was ripped off and Eda could see the broken bones on the other one. Her face was split in half, gray matter coming out of it, with more blood stains on one of her empty eye sockets and dried tears on the other one. Her small face frozen in a terrified expression, forever.

Eda vomited at the sight of her dear child's cadaver. The awful taste made her mind dizzy and Eda began to cry. She tried to tell herself that it was all a ruse, a repulsive ploy to break her. That she would never hurt Luz, that it was the Emperor who had killed her and mutilated her young body.

But a deep, dark part of her told her that it wasn't true. That she, the most powerful witch on the Isles, the woman the human had put her trust and love on, had killed her own kid.

She wailed as she felt the little flicker of light that had brought her so much happiness and hope to her life, drifted away from her.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hoped you liked this piece of garbage, if someone is wondering, I'll write a third part about this, about Luz and how she feels after freeing Eda, because, come on. The poor kid had to watch her surrogate mom being dragged away from her after she came to her rescue. I'm sure Luz has some serious issues with that.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it, any criticism is welcomed, and have a nice weekend, rest, enjoy and see you in my next fic (which will probably come on Sunday because I have a ton of homework to do)


End file.
